Chapstick
by MoustachingQuestions
Summary: Chapped lips shouldn't distract a 12th level intelligence. These things should not occupy his thoughts, but they do. Based off a prompt from Aura Flare.


**Chapstick: A Laura Prompt**

It didn't start as an issue.

He'd catch her licking her chapped lips every so often during meetings and think nothing of it. It was during one particular meeting, where Cosmic Boy was prattling on about Dominator attack patterns, no one paying particular attention, Brainy caught Violet nursing her chapped lips. She'd stopped wearing lipstick recently, looking strangely naked without the black staining her lips. He watched her tongue dart out and lick them, lost in thought. He turned his attention back to Cosmic Boy and didn't think twice about it.

And then it starts to become a problem.

It starts as an observation. Wearing as much lipstick as she did must have made Violet's lips dry, hence the chapping. Combat injuries may have made them worse, split lips and bruises. Simple observations that Brainy doesn't dwell on. It isn't until he turns to Vi during an experiment that he realises how self-conscious the Legionnaire has become about her lips. Words and snickers die on them as he notices Vi worrying about her mouth again. He can't help but be transfixed at the pink, stark against her pale complexion, lick and pearly teeth tug at her bottom lip. Brainy shook his head, dispelling the thoughts and blamed his age. Teenagers have notoriously unstable hormones. It didn't stop him from turning away from her, blushing.

It isn't long before his hormones start taking over his thoughts. The first time they announced themselves he was embarrassed, and pushed them aside. Shrinking Violet was a teammate and fellow scientist, one of the few who could keep up with his 12th level intellect, such thoughts about her were... compromising to say the least. It would make lab work awkward. He began to wonder what they felt like. As an android simple things like chapped lips never happened, he could deduce that they would be rough, but would they still retain that strange smoothness the seemed to suggest? He wondered about her taste. She ate a lot of sugary foods he noticed, would she taste sweet as they were? She drank a lot of coffee too, as most of the team did.

' _Perhaps sweet with a bitter kick,'_ he mused. _'Sounds like her, sweet with a kick.'_

It'd been maybe a week since those thoughts began. A week of torture, watching Vi lick and bite her lips and letting his eyes wander from Vi's to her lips whenever he talks to her. It bothers him. He doesn't want to be distracted by her mouth or the flicker of a pink tongue or white teeth sinking into her skin.

Violet isn't oblivious to the Coluan's change in behaviour. She sees his eyes dart from looking at hers down, his answers becoming briefer and he turns away from her sooner. She waits to talk to him, and corners him during a long flight in the cruiser's on-board lab.

"You okay?" She asks, sitting on a steel beam above the table Brainy's working at, beakers and chemical bottles scattered across it.

"Fine." He answers without turning. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you've been acting weird lately." Vi saw him tense, gently setting the test tubes he was holding down and turning to look at her. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." Brainy forced, his eyes focused on Vi, nibbling on her chapped bottom lip. She sighed.

"You're a terrible liar." She announced, elegantly landing on the floor and walking to the other. "I bet can't even look me in the eye."

"Of course I can." Brainy argued, making his eyes to look into hers. Were they always that vibrant? Violet didn't say anything, but her eyes challenged his statement, and after a few moments she smiled and giggled in her signature way, licking her lips.

"Okay, so you're not a terrible liar." She concluded. "But you're still pretty bad. I'm gonna get some food, I'll be back in a while."

Vi left the lab, leaving Brainy to lean against his worktable and sigh, running a hand through his blonde hair. He needed to remedy this situation, fast. But how? The obvious source of the problem was Vi's chapped lips, but he couldn't just get rid of her. Perhaps one of those items that the Legion ladies carried with them, what were they called? Chapstick? Yes, if Vi was to have one of those then she would no longer have chapped lips and problem solved.

"But how do I get one of those..?" Brainy asked himself, brushing himself off as he left the lab in search of a certain Legionnaire.

Phantom Girl laughed loudly, clutching her stomach and curling up into the couch in her quarters.

"Y-You?" She said between giggles. "Need Chapstick? Oh Valor give me strength!"

Brainy sighed, his arms folded and a faint blush on his cheeks. "What's so funny about it? Pretty much everyone else uses it, why is my case so hilarious?"

"Because-Because it's only the girls that use it and you're-" Phantom Girl giggled more, and eventually calmed down enough to reply.

"Why'd you come to me f-" She snorted. "-For Chapstick anyways?"

"Because the entire ship knows you have at least seven of them." Brainy stated.

"Eleven, I got some more before we left." Phantom Girl stood and walked to her dresser, opening the top draw and pulling out a small round tin. She picked out two tubes before returning the tin to its place and closing the drawer. She handed them to Brainy.  
"One for you and one for Vi," She told him, muttering. "Valor knows the girl needs some."

Brainy thanked her and left as quickly as he could, returning to the lab and dropping both into Vi's lab jacket, knowing that sooner or later she'd find them. He hoped sooner.

Vi noticed the items not long after she returned from the mess hall, pulling them both out of her pocket and throwing Brainy a questioning look, to which he shrugged before turning back to his work. He glanced at her a few minutes later to see if she had used them and caught her returning one to its pocket, rubbing her lips contentedly.

The effects of the Chapstick were not as immediate as Brainy had hoped, but as time passed Vi seemed to smile more, and licked and bit her lips less often. A part of him seemed almost disappointed at that, but the problem remained, even with the Chapstick he couldn't focus on Vi without wondering what it would be like to love her and be more than a fellow scientist or Legionnaire. Love. Such emotions were trivial to Brainy. One of the few emotions organics seemed to possess that he simply couldn't understand. How can one person be of such importance that one would throw away their own life to protect it?

Even when she spoke to him now he'd get lost over how her tongue glided over syllables and curled over vowels. Small things, like when she was lying her mouth would curl upwards in the corners, a barely there smile. Or how when she was focused her tongue would poke out and she would nibble her lip, lost in concentration. Like she was now, bent over one of her experiments, oblivious to everything outside the invisible bubble of her focus.

Was this love? This feeling inside of him? The yearning he had to be close to her? The reason she suddenly became a priority in his mind? Is this what organics felt when they loved? Brainy pondered these thoughts much as he worked, frequently glancing at the Imskan on the far side of the room, toying with pieces of one of Imperiex's robots. Something in him told him to stop his work, and pay more attention to her. A curious notion, but Brainy followed the trail of thought and shifted his hands back from tools. He watched Violet work, taking in her figure for the first time. He'd not paid attention to her particularly when they had first met, dismissing her and her abilities until she had challenged his knowledge when constructing Lightning Lad's replacement arm. Since then she'd been an assistant, company in the late hours and small talk in the lab. He'd never paid attention to more than the fact that she was petite .

Brainy watched silently how her raven hair fell in front of her face as she worked, her hands worked deftly around the machine, dancing over the wires and gliding over the metal with such precision and purpose. His mind wandered, he thought how those hands would feel gliding over his own metallic chest, digging beneath the openings and pulling at his circuits. He shook his head as the thoughts travelled down a darker path. She reached over the worktable to grab something, standing on tiptoes and bending just a little bit more than necessary. Brainy opened his mouth in a silent gasp and turned away, leaning forward onto his worktable, his face heating in embarrassment. He heard Vi laugh, and approach him.

"Had enough of staring or are you eyes starting to hurt?"

"I was not staring." He hissed, feeling her reach around from behind. Her arms slid under his own as she reached for something. He could feel her breath, warm against his neck as her body brushed against his back. He tensed, turning his head back to look at her. Their faces were inches apart. Tauntingly close and yet so far.

"Yes you were." She breathed, jumping back with a wrench she had grabbed. She looked back at him, her mouth curling up in the corners. "Needed this. I don't know where my one went."

"Liar." Brainy answered before he knew what he was thinking, letting the words roll off his tongue as he moved towards her, taking the wrench. "I bet yours is right behind that toy over there."

Vi smirked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Alright, you got me." She grinned. "What gave it away?"

Brainy muttered something. Vi tilted her head.

"What?"

Brainy hesitated, suddenly having a lot more interest in the wrench he was holding. "Your mouth curves up in the corners when you lie. It's like you're smiling but you're not."

"Really?" Vi asked, perplexed. "How would you know unless..." Her eyes widened and she giggled, digging a tube of Chapstick out of her lab coat pocket and tapping him on the nose, laughing. "So Tinya was telling the truth! You did ask her for Chapstick!" She paused, returning the Chapstick to her pocket.. "Why? I mean, Phantom Girl said-"

"It was distracting." Brainy interrupted, his hands gripping the wrench tighter, refusing to look at Violet. "I couldn't focus with you constantly biting your lips."

"So that's how you knew about-"

"Your giveaway when you're lying, yes." Brainy interrupted, hesitating before pressing on. "I don't know why but it became so distracting, how am I supposed to run experiments when my assistant can't stop chewing her lips every few seconds?"

"If it bothered you that much you should have said something." Vi told him. "Phantom Girl told me what happened anyway so I kind-of knew from the start."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I.. Thought you'd be embarrassed that I knew it was you." Vi admitted, holding herself, the slightest blush dusting her cheeks. "I never did say thank you for them though."

"You don't have to," Brainy quickly replied, seeing a mischievous glint in the others eye. "What are you planning?"

Vi didn't answer, but lifted herself with her flight ring to press her lips against the other's, murmuring a quiet 'thanks'. Brainy's eves widened and he made a noise of surprise. As quickly as it happened, it was over, and Violet darted over to her abandoned project with a much darker blush than before.

For a moment Brainy didn't move, to perplexed to do anything. He lightly brushed his thumb over his lips, his sensors buzzing in excitement as his cheeks too darkened. Coming to his senses Brainy flew over to Vi and grabbed her hand, throwing her a inquisitive look.

"I thought you were going to freak out or something.." Vi told him, pulling her hand away from his.

"Why would I do that?" He asked her. "I am the one who got you these in the first place." Vi felt a hand reach into her coat pocket and pull out a Chapstick.

"Apparently these have a flavour." Brainy stated, scanning the side before turning his attention back to her. " I'm afraid I didn't taste anything."

Vi grinned and laughed, resting against her worktable. "You're almost as bad at seduction as you are lying."

"I tried." Brainy shrugged, a similar glint in his eyes as he too leant against Vi's worktable, blocking her in. "I'm a scientist, seduction isn't my field of study."

"And what is your field of study, Mr. Scientist?" Vi joked, her laughter turning breathless as they leant close.

"Human anatomy." He hesitated at the last moment. Vi smiled, reaching and twisting a hand into his hair, pulling him forward and pressing their lips together for the second time. Brainy tenses, his systems all seeming to crash at once as the kiss lasts longer than the last. He pulls her closer, mimicking her movements until she tugs at his hair again, pulling them apart and gasping for breath.

"Wow." She breathes, looking up at him. "That was-wow. We should have done this sooner."

"You wanted to do this the whole time?" He asks, leaving light kisses against her neck, having no need to regain the breath he never had.

Vi nodded, sighing at his actions. "I didn't think you wanted to. I thought I was just your lab partner."

Feeling Vi's fingers still tangled in its mess, Brainy looks at her, smirking. "I thought I was just your lab partner."

"You mean-" Vi tells him between kisses. "We could have been-" Kiss. "Making out-" Kiss. "This whole time?"

"Maybe we should make up for lost time." Brainy suggested, nipping her bottom lip. Vi growled, her blush starting to fade.

"Shut up and kiss me already."


End file.
